Food makers try to get on shopping list

PaulZiobro

--Campbell's putting soup ads on milk, others use recipes to get on shopping list

--Strategies try to grow sales volumes while shoppers remain cautious

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The latest prime piece of advertising space for food companies is in the fridge.

Campbell Soup Co.
CPB, +0.58%
this year is reprising plans to stick ads for chicken noodle and tomato soup on milk gallons, hoping that each time someone brings out the milk to pour in coffee, over cereal or otherwise will serve as a reminder to buy soup.

With consumers showing a growing tendency to carefully plan out their supermarket trips, the soup-on-milk advertising is just one of several ways food makers are trying to get customer to decide they're going to buy their product before they head to the store.

The economic downturn "has left the consumer in a situation where they're interested in gaining back control of their lives," said Chuck Vila, vice president of consumer insights at Campbell. "For the last decade, things have been out of their control." Campbell declined to provide the cost putting the soup ads on 3 million gallons of milk sold by other companies.

The efforts to target shoppers during the key planning phase comes as food makers are trying to sell more of their items, even as they sport higher prices due to rising costs. The higher prices are forcing struggling consumers to closely manage what they buy and leaving fewer food dollars up for grabs. Food makers have also scaled back discounting to preserve margins, heightening the need to woo shoppers using different methods.

Packaged Facts, a consumer research firm, recently surveyed 2,000 shoppers who had gone grocery shopping in the past day, and analyzed their purchases of 34 items. In 24, including cheese, bread and coffee, 70% or more of shoppers said they had planned to buy the item beforehand. That's a sign, the firm says, of the increasing importance of marketing those products to consumers before the store.

"If it's not on the list, it's not going to get into the cart," Packaged Facts Publisher David Sprinkle said.

The strategies being used by Campbell, General Mills Inc.
GIS, +0.73%
and others to make it onto shopping lists include highlighting ways that products can be incorporated into simple recipes, using just a few ingredients, that are posted on websites, printed alongside coupons and featured in advertising. Others companies like Kraft Foods Inc.
KFT
are adapting existing products for use in meals.

Campbell, which also makes V8 juice and Pepperidge Farm, has now found that the most of the time, shoppers have made up their minds if they're going to buy a can of soup or bottle of juice before they enter the store. That's a shift from prior findings that showed 70% of buying decisions were made in-store, Phil McGee, Campbell's director of consumer insights, said.

General Mills is seeing the trend manifest at the website for its Betty Crocker brand, where printouts of recipes and coupons are growing faster than visits to the site. "That's a pretty good sign that you're going to make or buy" that product, said General Mills Interactive Marketing Director Jim Cuene.

The website for its Pillsbury brand this year also began highlighting a broader lineup of easy-to-make recipes, like a chicken pot pie, using the full range of Pillsbury's refrigerated dough products. Plans for that came after sales for Pillsbury's crescent rolls jumped 8% in fiscal 2011, after showcasing how to use that product in appetizers, dinners and other recipes, rather than on its own.

Kraft's introduction of Philadelphia Cooking Creme also is designed to help give customer dinner ideas. Launched earlier this year, Kraft took a product had been spread on bagels and came up with varieties like Italian cheese and herb that can be used in pasta dishes or enchiladas.

While for many food makers the path to the shopping cart starts at home, in-store marketing is by no means dead, especially for impulse buys like candy. Hershey Co.
HSY, +0.56%
in implementing price increases of nearly 10% on its candy this year, continued to keep up in-store merchandising. Coca-Cola Co.
KO, +0.13%
is putting its drinks throughout supermarkets to catch customers attention, including putting Dasani water bottles near bananas or sodas near rotisserie chickens.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use. Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.